BALTIMORE (AP) - Video released Tuesday from a camera worn by a police sergeant in Baltimore shows the exchange of gunfire between a suspect and officers at an addiction clinic last week in a violent episode that ended with two people dead.
Police showed reporters an unedited version of the video, but authorities are only making public a version of the footage that shows the moments leading to the shootout and the aftermath, when an officer dragged the injured sergeant to safety. Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said the video was edited before release “out of respect for human life that was lost.”
The shooting on July 15 left a lab technician and the gunman dead. Sgt. Billy Shiflett suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach. A clinic employee taking cover in a restroom was injured by shrapnel.
The video shows Shiflett and an Officer Christopher Miller entering the clinic with their guns drawn, directing a man to move, walking down hallways and ordering the suspect later identified as Baltimore resident Ashanti Pinkney to drop his weapon. Pinkney and a woman can be heard yelling in the background.
“Don’t do it! Don’t do it!” the woman, who can’t be seen in the video, screamed.
“Put the gun down!” Shiflett yelled twice, as the woman continued to repeat herself. Half of Pinkney’s body can be seen at the opposite end of the hallway from where Shiflett was standing.
“I’m just waiting for someone,” Pinkney said. He was again ordered to put the gun down while Shiflett slowly continued to walk down the hallway toward Pinkney.
Pinkney, who was off to the side of the hallway, then fired toward Shiflett, who immediately return fire with a rifle. Pinkney stepped onto the hallway in the exchange and fell to the ground.
Miller announced on the radio that shots had been fired and an officer was down. He then dragged Shiflett away.
Police have said Pinkney was buzzed into the clinic and demanded methadone. Harrison said Pinkney shot lab technician David Caldwell before police arrived.
Authorities have not identified a motive.
“This person was there, and for whatever reason, this person just became really volatile and violent,” Harrison said. “And as you saw, our team worked really hard to deescalate and to tell him to put his gun down many times.”
Caldwell, 52, of Baltimore, was employed by clinical lab testing giant LabCorp. The company has said he worked at the Man Alive Treatment Center as a patient services technician specialist, helping facilitate patients’ tests.
He was taken after the shooting to a hospital, where he died.
Shiflett, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was struck in the lower abdomen, underwent surgery and was released from the hospital Sunday. Baltimore Police Capt. Donald Diehl said Shiflett used an M4 rifle.
Miller fired his gun once.
Harrison said Pinkney had previously been at the clinic. Diehl said Pinkney fired a .357-caliber revolver that was not registered to him. He was carrying extra rounds for the gun.
The drug that Pinkney was seeking helps control opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. It can be given only at government-regulated clinics.
Court records in Maryland show Pinkney was previously convicted on drug and theft charges.
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